Bill McKay
@williammckay.bsky.social
Festina lente.
Chemical Engineer. On sabbatical. Admirer of thinkers, dreamers, trees, trails, rocks, and books. Aimless wanderer and wonderer.
Chemical Engineer. On sabbatical. Admirer of thinkers, dreamers, trees, trails, rocks, and books. Aimless wanderer and wonderer.
Reposted by Bill McKay
August 30, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Bill McKay
Be like the bird, who
pausing in his flight
On limb too slight
feels it give way beneath him
Yet sings
Knowing he has wings.
― Victor Hugo, The Bird
#Poetry
pausing in his flight
On limb too slight
feels it give way beneath him
Yet sings
Knowing he has wings.
― Victor Hugo, The Bird
#Poetry
July 28, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Be like the bird, who
pausing in his flight
On limb too slight
feels it give way beneath him
Yet sings
Knowing he has wings.
― Victor Hugo, The Bird
#Poetry
pausing in his flight
On limb too slight
feels it give way beneath him
Yet sings
Knowing he has wings.
― Victor Hugo, The Bird
#Poetry
Reposted by Bill McKay
Are YOU the most depressing book plate ever? YES, You ARE!
July 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Are YOU the most depressing book plate ever? YES, You ARE!
Reposted by Bill McKay
“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
July 4, 2025 at 12:04 PM
“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Linked article with studies on impact of LLM use to cognitive decline… BUT what’s the next step?? My thoughts in the replies…
My prediction: more and earlier dementia is gonna be one of the legacies of LLMs
“The analysis of the L.L.M. users showed fewer widespread connections between different parts of their brains…and less theta connectivity, which is associated with working memory.”
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
“The analysis of the L.L.M. users showed fewer widespread connections between different parts of their brains…and less theta connectivity, which is associated with working memory.”
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
A.I. Is Homogenizing Our Thoughts
Recent studies suggest that tools such as ChatGPT make our brains less active and our writing less original.
www.newyorker.com
June 28, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Linked article with studies on impact of LLM use to cognitive decline… BUT what’s the next step?? My thoughts in the replies…
Reposted by Bill McKay
📢 📢 THE SITEWIDE SUMMER SALE IS ON 📢 📢
Buy 2 books and save 20%
3 books and save 30%
4 or more books and save 40%
Buy 2 books and save 20%
3 books and save 30%
4 or more books and save 40%
June 20, 2025 at 8:32 PM
📢 📢 THE SITEWIDE SUMMER SALE IS ON 📢 📢
Buy 2 books and save 20%
3 books and save 30%
4 or more books and save 40%
Buy 2 books and save 20%
3 books and save 30%
4 or more books and save 40%
Reposted by Bill McKay
In case you're wondering, authoritarians use this strategy of escalation to manufacture crisis, provoke outrage, then use the reaction to justify repression. It’s not about restoring order, it's about creating a spectacle of chaos they can claim only they can control.
Escalating to escalate.
"Roughly 500 Marines based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California have been mobilized ... and will join the National Guard troops that were activated ... over the weekend without the consent of California’s governor or the city’s mayor."
"Roughly 500 Marines based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California have been mobilized ... and will join the National Guard troops that were activated ... over the weekend without the consent of California’s governor or the city’s mayor."
Freeways blocked, cars on fire: LA protests against immigration raids and National Guard deployment | CNN
Police have used flash-bangs and tear gas while dispersing crowds as protesters set at least two Waymo self-driving cars on fire. Follow for live updates
www.cnn.com
June 9, 2025 at 8:24 PM
In case you're wondering, authoritarians use this strategy of escalation to manufacture crisis, provoke outrage, then use the reaction to justify repression. It’s not about restoring order, it's about creating a spectacle of chaos they can claim only they can control.
Reposted by Bill McKay
What to expect next:
– Escalation framed as “restoring order”
– Mass arrests under vague pretexts
– Targeting of protest organisers and journalists
– Expansion of emergency powers
– Demonisation of dissent as “terrorism”
– Escalation framed as “restoring order”
– Mass arrests under vague pretexts
– Targeting of protest organisers and journalists
– Expansion of emergency powers
– Demonisation of dissent as “terrorism”
June 9, 2025 at 8:26 PM
What to expect next:
– Escalation framed as “restoring order”
– Mass arrests under vague pretexts
– Targeting of protest organisers and journalists
– Expansion of emergency powers
– Demonisation of dissent as “terrorism”
– Escalation framed as “restoring order”
– Mass arrests under vague pretexts
– Targeting of protest organisers and journalists
– Expansion of emergency powers
– Demonisation of dissent as “terrorism”
We are close to the final transition of WWII being a firsthand experience and second hand memory to just a chapter in the history book that most never get to by school year’s end. The fading & dissolution of lost memories of total war, its pain and repercussions, are evident in our daily discourse.
81 years ago, on June 6, 1944, the landing of the anti-Hitler coalition troops in Normandy began: Operation Overlord, or rather its first stage - Operation Neptune, the famous D-Day. American, British and Canadian troops carried out the largest landing operation […]
[Original post on mstdn.social]
[Original post on mstdn.social]
June 6, 2025 at 6:50 PM
We are close to the final transition of WWII being a firsthand experience and second hand memory to just a chapter in the history book that most never get to by school year’s end. The fading & dissolution of lost memories of total war, its pain and repercussions, are evident in our daily discourse.
If you do nothing else today, scroll through this thread of this lady’s marvelous cookies (biscuits)!
Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵
First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.
First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.
May 30, 2025 at 1:41 AM
If you do nothing else today, scroll through this thread of this lady’s marvelous cookies (biscuits)!
Reposted by Bill McKay
Jaw-dropping foolishness www.thecrimson.com/article/2025... (The NYT article focuses on the idea that: "The move is likely to have a significant effect on the university’s bottom line", but the harm extends so far beyond that, beginning with US reputation abroad.)
Trump Admin Revokes Harvard’s Authorization To Enroll International Students | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Trump administration revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll international students on Thursday, dramatically escalating the administration’s fight with the University and threatening thousands of cur...
www.thecrimson.com
May 22, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Jaw-dropping foolishness www.thecrimson.com/article/2025... (The NYT article focuses on the idea that: "The move is likely to have a significant effect on the university’s bottom line", but the harm extends so far beyond that, beginning with US reputation abroad.)
Reposted by Bill McKay
Excited to announce that my book 'The Library of Ancient Wisdom' will be released 27th Feb in the UK and 12th March in the US. Pre-orders available from wherever you get your books. Details here:
www.penguin.co.uk/books/443027...
www.penguin.co.uk/books/443027...
The Library of Ancient Wisdom
When a team of Victorian archaeologists dug into a grassy hill in Iraq, they chanced upon one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen: the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, s...
www.penguin.co.uk
February 25, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Excited to announce that my book 'The Library of Ancient Wisdom' will be released 27th Feb in the UK and 12th March in the US. Pre-orders available from wherever you get your books. Details here:
www.penguin.co.uk/books/443027...
www.penguin.co.uk/books/443027...
Reposted by Bill McKay
I just started a new side channel for my Latin material. If you want to help me out, please go subscribe and watch some videos.
www.youtube.com/@SolSupraSolem
www.youtube.com/@SolSupraSolem
Sol Supra Solem
Sol Supra Solem is the official Latin language channel for content by @TheModernHermeticist and home of the De Arte et Mysteriis podcast, which serves to provide brief explanations of concepts and tex...
www.youtube.com
April 30, 2025 at 1:53 AM
I just started a new side channel for my Latin material. If you want to help me out, please go subscribe and watch some videos.
www.youtube.com/@SolSupraSolem
www.youtube.com/@SolSupraSolem
Reposted by Bill McKay
A deep bow before @mcnallyjackson in-house designer Margaret Harring for these raptures of geometry and color gracing the covers of the first three books in #MarginalianEditions mailchi.mp/themarginali...
April 26, 2025 at 5:02 PM
A deep bow before @mcnallyjackson in-house designer Margaret Harring for these raptures of geometry and color gracing the covers of the first three books in #MarginalianEditions mailchi.mp/themarginali...
Reposted by Bill McKay
Tired of having algorithms divine what you care about, decide what you see, and distract you with ads? Try the Marginalian newsletter — the week’s most inspiring and nourishing reads, free, ad-free, algorithm-free, entirely human, made of feeling and time since 2006: themarginalian.org/newsletter
sunday newsletter
If you yearn for depth and delight without the distraction of a social media feed, if you are weary of algorithms deciding what you see and read and constellate into reality, try the Marginalian Su…
themarginalian.org
April 25, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Tired of having algorithms divine what you care about, decide what you see, and distract you with ads? Try the Marginalian newsletter — the week’s most inspiring and nourishing reads, free, ad-free, algorithm-free, entirely human, made of feeling and time since 2006: themarginalian.org/newsletter
Reposted by Bill McKay
Bravo
Can we get more of this? “The Japanese American National Museum will ‘scrub nothing,’ Fujioka said, and instead will highlight the importance of DEI.
“Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.
“Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.
Japanese American National Museum takes a stand against DOGE cuts to NEH
The National Endowment for the Humanities warned museums across the country that it was slashing funding, including money previously pledged to places such as LACMA and the Japanese American National ...
www.latimes.com
April 6, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Bravo
Some of the undesirable unintended consequences…
April 5, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Some of the undesirable unintended consequences…
Reposted by Bill McKay
Yes, I too am lemonaded out...
March 31, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Yes, I too am lemonaded out...
Reposted by Bill McKay
A reminder: organisations and teams that rely on continued funding from external stakeholders for their existence will make decisions and speak all the words to please those external stakeholders.
March 30, 2025 at 12:13 AM
A reminder: organisations and teams that rely on continued funding from external stakeholders for their existence will make decisions and speak all the words to please those external stakeholders.
Reposted by Bill McKay
In a world where so many claim to be Cassandra, will the true Cassandra please stand up? How can we help our fellow humans know who is the true Cassandra?
March 1, 2025 at 12:39 AM
In a world where so many claim to be Cassandra, will the true Cassandra please stand up? How can we help our fellow humans know who is the true Cassandra?
Reposted by Bill McKay
Reminder that Zelensky has not neglected to say thank you: (1/2)
February 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reminder that Zelensky has not neglected to say thank you: (1/2)